Your take may be entirely spot on - maybe it was self-indulgent. However I read it more as a thank you to all of those people who encouraged him along the way, even if they didn't know who he was or didn't need to make the effort. Based on what he's written, the guy simply prefers not to see the more cynical or dark side of people and that blind-spot probably is even bigger when it comes to his own career. Its part of the reason I love his pieces - he wants to believe in the good and I root for him to find it every time.

Yes, Joe's especially good at this, and that part of the story was fantastic. I admit it was the third-person, broke-and-confused-boy-on-a-city-bus tone that grated some. Into his writer's broth went a lot of hard work, a dash of boldness, and not a little genius. And luck. He's not some poor schmuck. He's a damn great writer, and his self-depiction at times seems a little too fantastic.

Whatever. That's Pos for me! One day, he whips out a brilliant multi-thousand word piece on the HoF, the next he's weeping over the worn spots in the grass at his childhood home.

— Almost nine percent of the voters saw Pedro Martinez pitch — they saw him just like you and me — and decided not to check his name. It doesn’t matter. But it’s such a loss for them. If you don’t get goosebumps of joy doing your part to elect players like Pedro Martinez into the Hall of Fame, I have no idea why you vote in the first place.

"Takeaway: The people who do the most interesting Hall of Fame ballots never write stories about them; I wish they would. I wish the voters would explain how, on this ballot, they found room to vote for Aaron Boone and Tom Gordon. Maybe it would be a great story. Maybe Boone or Gordon saved their lives. Maybe Boone or Gordon taught their children how to read. I want the story, I really do."